By 2020, more than half a million workers will be held back by a lack of soft skills.

Development Economics 2015

While these skills are essential to workplace success, as well as personal wellbeing, their value extends even further.

Soft skills are the secret to self-empowerment and equality

If we truly want an education system that develops the individual,

That encourages questioning, reflection, and a curious mind,

That creates a lust for lifelong learning,

And that brings about social mobility and equality,

Then soft skills must be prioritised.

Soft skills open our eyes to reality…

They give us the strength to change things for the better…

And they provide us with the resilience that making change demands.

There is evidence that this new kind of education would have dramatic benefits,

Not only for the young people concerned, but also for society as a whole.

Graham Allen’s report, Early Intervention: The Next Steps, detailed “the immense penalties to society and to the individual of failing to provide a strong foundation of social and emotional capabilities early in life.”

There is also a great deal of evidence that girls in particular will benefit from soft skills development.